National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency: The 'transparent' spy org. you've never heard of

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a little-known organization under the Defense Department’s purview that provides geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) to the spy community. Now it is moving from providing maps to focusing on analysis.

The NGA’s mission is to provide “timely, relevant, and
accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national
security,” its website says. “From the discovery of
atrocities in Kosovo, to support for the cities hosting the
Olympics, through the response to Hurricane Katrina, and our work
in Haiti and Japan, NGA has provided critical GEOINT support when
our nation needed it most.”

With the installation of Robert Cardillo, a 31-year intelligence
community veteran, as its director at the beginning of October,
the NGA is poised to take a bigger role in the intelligence
community. Cardillo took over from Letitia Long, the first woman
to head a major intelligence agency, when she officially retired
after four years at the helm of NGA and more than 36 years total
in the intelligence community.

“Together, we have transformed NGA from a static product
producer” ‒ think basic maps and satellite images ‒
“into a provider of dynamic content, analysis, and
services,” Long said during the change-of-leadership
ceremony, the Atlantic reported.

In its current iteration, the NGA was formed in 2003, allowing
the organization to integrate multiple sources of information,
intelligence and tradecrafts to produce innovative and
sophisticated GEOINT, with a focus on exploiting and analyzing
imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess and
visually depict physical features and human activity around the
world. Its precursor, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency
(NIMA), was created in 1996, consolidating several different
agencies that specialized in imagery analysis and mapmaking.

Geospatial analysis began during World War I, with the advent of
aerial photography, which was a major contributor to battlefield
intelligence. The NGA highlights two historical uses of GEOINT on
its site: the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Apollo 11 moon
landing.

On October 19, 1962, the fifth day of the Cuban Missile Crisis,
imagery provided by an NGA predecessor ‒ the National
Photographic Interpretation Center ‒ helped American
decision-makers understand the scope of the Soviet troop presence
near missile positions. This helped develop a broader
understanding of USSR reinforcements in Cuba, and how quickly the
missiles could be readied for use.

When it came to NASA’s Apollo program, NGA said its predecessor
agencies played a key role in the United States’ moon exploration
efforts by creating detailed maps and charts of the lunar
surface.

Now the agency is focusing on enabling its partners and customers
‒ the president is considered Customer #1 ‒ to access real-time
information providing context about time and location in a
variety of formats. The previous director, Long, is widely
credited for leading a transformation of NGA’s capabilities,
putting more sophisticated GEOINT into the hands of more
customers ‒ members of the military, diplomats, and
decision-makers alike, according to the Atlantic.

“Digital and Web technology evolution have enabled a new mode
of business for NGA,” MG Mark Quantock, the Springfield,
Virginia-based agency’s military deputy, told C4ISR &
Networks.

“As a ‘static’ product-driven organization we would do deep
analysis with our best geospatial experts and put the results
into a PDF or PowerPoint to send out to mission partners,”
he said. “Now we’re able to share data feeds and access in
real time in addition to our PDFs.”

The goal is accurate, detailed GEOINT delivered virtually
instantly. “Users can get the latest information in real time
as we record it and quality-check it,” Quantock said.

And the NGA is not hampered by intelligence scandals like some of
its sister organizations, such as the CIA or the National
Security Agency.

“GEOINT has a great advantage in our current environment
because it’s the most transparent of the collection
disciplines,” Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper, himself a former NGA director, said last spring at the
GEOINT Symposium in Tampa, Florida.

But that doesn’t mean that the NGA’s accomplishments have gotten
it recognition outside of intelligence circles. When it came to
the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Navy’s SEAL Team
Six, which carried out the raid, got all the glory. But the
GEOINT provided to them by the NGA was critical, intelligence
officials told the Atlantic.

The agency’s intelligence allowed the team to practice in a
perfect replica of the Abbottabad, Pakistan compound where bin
Laden was hiding out, according to Clearance Jobs. Their data
also enabled the SEALs to determine how many people lived there,
their gender and even their heights.